Microsoft continues to promote how much growth it has seen in its Windows Azure business. In April, the company announced that the division has now generated over $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time.

In a new blog post, Microsoft offers up some more statistics on the Windows Azure division, including word that over 50 percent of the world's Fortune 500 companies are now using the cloud services. Steven Martin, the general manager of Windows Azure, states, "In just a year, we have grown to over 200 services for our platform, more than doubled our customer base (now at 250,000) and are seeing an average of 1,000 new customers per day."

Martin writes that Microsoft manages to double the amount of Windows Azure's compute power, along with doubling the amount of storage it can handle, every six to nine months. He adds:

With over four trillion objects in Windows Azure and an average of 270,000 requests per second, customer requirements grow and are met daily. In peak periods, demand can grow to a staggering 880,000 requests per second.

Microsoft recently announced some changes to the pricing model for Windows Azure customers, including a reduction of the free trial from three months to just one month, but also offering $200 in free credits.